Is the LGBT Movement too Nice to Win?

Interesting post by Joe Sudbay at Americablog. He says that the LGBT movement is underachieving because we are not feared – like the National Rifle Association (NRA). Of course, we will never be as powerful as the NRA because there are more homes with guns than gays. This is common sense. But his larger point is well taken:

The conversation stops (with members of Congress) because people in these DC offices don’t fear us. They fear the other side. And, although candidates often want our support (mostly money), they won’t take the votes necessary to give us our rights. The Victory Fund’s Chuck Wolfe’s solution is: “Our job as advocates is to come together to find a solution, address the fear and create the conditions to win.”

We do need to create the conditions to win. And, we’re not going to get there by playing nice. For one thing, our advocates need to call out “political homophobia” when they see it. And, we need to make politicians fear us, not our opponents. Elected officials and candidates view the gay community as an ATM. And, too many in our community are happy just to get invited. That hasn’t gotten us our equality. Not even close.

Joe is right. Our job as advocates is to win equal rights under the law. It is not to make friends with powerful people for the sake of having a nice Rolodex — or later getting a plum lobby job where one can buy a pretty Rolex.

As they say, if you want love in Washington, DC buy a dog. Before we are revered in the halls of Congress, we must first be feared.

About the Author

Wayne Besen is the Founding Executive Director of Truth Wins Out and author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth” (Haworth, 2003). In 2010, Besen was awarded the “Visionary Award” at the Out Music Awards for organizing the American Prayer Hour, an event which shined a spotlight on the role American evangelicals played in the introduction of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

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8 Comments

very true…too often we take the “nice” approach. Just use the DADT issue as an example. Though most of us were not happy with the presidents – lets have a survey and then repeal – mentality, we went along with hardly any uproar. Only by drawing the line in the sand and saying, “look…if you don’t make some changes there will be consequences”, will we have anyone truly “fearing” us.

ETownCanuckJuly 14, 2010 at 10:50 am -

It is sad but true, I remember back when Prop 8 was first heating up in California..several out gay celebrities made comments about how they shouldn’t have to pay their state taxes until the state recoginized them as “equal” citizens. Did any of them stop paying them? Of course not. Should they have? Absolutely!

Had all the gays in California banded together and gone on strike to demand equality, how quickly do you think California would have caved in to their demand for equality? The motion picture industry would have been at a standstill, Disneyland would have been closed, starlets would not have been able to get their much desired hair extensions, No one would have been able to get their Starbucks fix. Gays would have had California by the balls so to speak, and that’s the way it should have been. The world is ruled by the almighty dollar and the only way to enact change is to hit where it hurts…the pocketbook.

Gary (NJ)July 14, 2010 at 10:57 am -

I abhor violence, but I have to confess, that when San Francisco had the ‘Night of Gay Rage’ after Dan White (who murdered the mayor and Harvey Milk) got off with a slap on the wrist, the tv film footage of the gays smashing windows and burning police cars was very satisfying. We need to get that anger back and the civil action and disobedience, but of course, *without* the violence!

DanielJuly 14, 2010 at 11:53 am -

It’s not even about violence–it’s about holding people responsible for what they do and maybe even (gasp) not voting for politicians when they do nothing or work against us even if they’re Democrats.

I completely agree. In California, why didn’t Equality California make ad criticizing the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church. Or expose the Mormons as hypocrites who would like polygamy, but not gay marriage.

And, it seems that we don’t learn. The campaign in Maine was just as tepid. I knew we’d lose from the first commercial I saw.

I wrote a piece for Mom Guess What and the SF Bay Times comparing the 1978 Briggs campaign to the 2008 Prop 8 campaign:

I got past “Gee, sir, may we please have our rights?” long ago. The LGBT movement spent decades trying to show the bigots how nice, “normal”, and unthreatening we were. That tactic didn’t accomplish anything. Attempting to win the “hearts and minds” of people who have hard hearts and closed minds is a futile effort. It’s long past time we simply demand what should never have been withheld in the first place from those who never had the right to keep it from us.

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